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In the move away from teachers following one specific methodology, the eclectic approach is the label given to a teacher's use of techniques and activities from a range of language teaching approaches and methodologies. The teacher decides what methodology or approach to use depending on the aims of the lesson and the learners in the group. Almost all modern course books have a mixture of approaches and methodologies.

ExampleThe class starts with an inductive activity with learners identifying the different uses of synonyms of movement using a reading text. They then practise these using TPR. In another class the input is recycled through a task-based lesson, with learners producing the instructions for an exercise manual.

In the classroomA typical lesson might combine elements from various sources such as TPR and TBL (the examples); the communicative approach, e.g. in communication gap activities; the lexical approach, e.g. focusing on lexical chunks in reading; and the structural-situational approach, e.g. establishing a clear context for the presentation of new structures.